Capturing The Wind a Japanese Noise Compilation (Dada Drumming)
What a goddamn lineup. Government Alpha, Endo, scum, ASTRO, Thirdorgan, MO*TE, Spore Spawn, K2, Kazuma Kubota, and many more. Obviously, a geographically-centered compilation capturing the latest from noise veterans and legends at this point. Curation is excellent and the inclusion of some contributors who are a little more obscure, at least to me, makes the compilation even more exciting. Each artist provides a quick 3-minute and highly focused track.
Everyone provided their absolute best and the results are honestly a little astonishing. The pace of each track moves fast and somehow the 14 artists and 48 minutes go by extremely quickly. The sequencing is great and each track flows so well into one another. There is definitely a commonality of cut-up and expertly edited sounds on high display here.
What surprised me were the tracks that brought a little bit of a slowdown to the mix among the incredibly fast-moving sounds. Track 5 from Kazuya Ishigami brings the first shift in tempo in the best possible way. Things start to float and he makes you pay attention to a more high-detailed and slower style. There are some great edits and sounds he brings in that correlate with the high-speed editing of the previuos tracks, but it's focused and somehow in line with what's come before. Definitely a highlight among the already strong tracks so far. Spore Spawn achieves very similar results with slowing the tempo down on track 11 while still providing an absolutely stunning and highly detailed submission.
A personal note that I've never been much into compilations, but really changed my opinion of that in recent years. This is a great example of why people should pay attention to comps. Great array of artists and sounds you wouldn't be exposed to otherwise. The tracks by Kazuya Ishigama and Hiroyuki Chaba surprised me and I'm going to be researching what I've missed from these artists now.
Highlights: ASTRO, damn this track is good. Endo, scum, Kazuya Ishigama, Thirdogan, Spore Spawn, K2, Kazuma Kubota. Too many!
An incredible compilation that everyone should own, every track is excellent and one of the fastest and most consistent 48 minutes released this year. Don't miss out, seriously!